Forgiveness is Divine
by goth-huntress
Summary: After being released from the prison camp, Mal Reynolds gets a job on a ship, and then goes home to Shadow.
1. Chapter 1

I don't know why I had to come back. No, that ain't true. I knew I had to come back home to see it with my own eyes. Didn't want to see no vid sent out neatly scrubbed by the damned Alliance, I needed to see Shadow. "Mr. Reynolds," I snapped to attention, too many years in the war made me snap to when I heard an officer's voice.

"Yes sir." Didn't seem to matter that I was just workin' on the man's crew to get enough money to get back home, I still stood straight as I could since I was still recoverin' from my last friendly reminder that I'd been on the losin' side at the prison camp before I'd been set free.

"I ain't no sir, Malcolm," the old man said with a dark chuckle. His name was Hayden Philips, his long hair was shot with steely grey and hung in dred locks down to his waist. His skin was as wrinkled as a walnut shell and just about the same color too. He was a good sort, had picked me up with barely a question asked when I'd hit the dock yards lookin' for a way home. Since I'd been on board, I'd found out that he'd run supplies to the Independents durin' the war, and had been lucky enough not to get caught. Had to envy a man who had his own piece of the Black and the freedom he had to go where he wanted and such. "I'm just a man who owns a spaceship. We're about to go into orbit. Wanted to see if you'd changed your mind about goin' down there son. Ain't fit for man nor beast no more."

"I know," I felt my heart stop like it was bein' pinched tween the fingers of a giant. I swear I had to concentrate to make it start to beatin' again. "I just have to go home. I have to see."

Hayden placed his plate sized hand on my shoulder. Don't know how the man managed to walk about his boat, let alone fit in the little cockpit. "Milly's got the shuttle ready for you. You sure you'll be ok down there alone? I don't like the idea of flyin' off and leavin' you down there Malcolm."

"Can't ask you to stay here while I have my look see, sir." I just could ask the man to give up a good payin' job to babysit me. "It's enough that y'all are comin' back to get me on your way back."

"Well you are takin' one of my shuttles Malcolm. Those cost too many creds." Hayden slapped me on the back, leavin' a fresh bruise to mix with the ones that were startin' to fade now after the weeks I'd been "free." I was amazed that the man was lettin' me take one of his shuttles when I'd only been part of his crew for such a short time. But Hayden said he and Milly, his wife, knew when they was around people they could trust, and I was one of them.

BREAK

I'd been steelin' myself for what I was goin' to see. I couldn't afford to waste too much fuel. I had enough for a quick landin' and enough to get back into atmo. Not enough to be durin' large circuits of the planet that I'd been born and raised on. I set the navigation computer to find the land that had belonged to my kin for a good five generations. Land that was now mine, but would never be fallow again unless the Alliance decided to let the terraformers come back. Weren't never goin' to happen though. Shadow had been destroyed as a message to us uppity no good Independents. They would never give us our home back.

It was nothing but black. Only difference tween the earth and the sky was the stars were twinklin' in the black. I hovered over where my ranch should have been, finally settin' the shuttle down when its landin' beacon got was makin' my ears ring. Took me nearly an hour to gear up enough to step down onto the charred soil. The ground was hard, smooth as lava in some places where the bombs had melted the sand and rocks. Usin' the stars for guides since there weren't nothin' else, I slowly walked towards where my momma's house had been where I fell to my knees, ignorin' the sharp edges of rock that cut into my skin as I threw up until there was nothing left and cried for all that each and every person on Shadow had lost. I cried for the Independents. I cried for my family and kin. I cried for the people I didn't know until my eyes went dry as my soul.

The radiation meter on my wrist started vibratin' tellin' me that I had to head back to the shuttle. I reached down and flicked a pebble with my fingers, watchin' as it skated cross my home like a rock on the waterin' hole that had been vaporized a few miles away. I pushed up and took one last look at what was left of Shadow before gettin' back on the shuttle and shot myself up with radiation meds as I sank into the bunk to wait for Hayden to come back.

I was never goin' to forgive god for this. I'd always believed that the Almighty would take care of us. I even held a glimmer of hope when we'd managed to live through Serenity, but now that I'd seen my home. I knew that there was no Almighty. I hated god as much as I hated the ruttin' Alliance. There would be no forgiveness. Ever.

BREAK

When I closed my eyes, I could smell the dust mingled with sunshine as we finished wranglin' the herd into the new pasture. Between my legs, I could feel the powerful muscles of my mare, Gypsy, as she flew over the rocky soil as she chased down a stray that was tryin' to head for the gentle rolling hills and freedom. Heard them say that the horses from the Earth-That-Was were almost blind, but that'd been engineered out of 'em over the five hundred years since we'd founded our new worlds. I snapped my eyes open as she dashed to the right, fightin' to keep my balance on my big roan. The calf shot away from us, and I brought my stunner up to fire at him when the horizon went white.

The heat tore the meat from the calf first. I could hear it brayin' for its momma as it was stripped to bone and then turned to dust on the nuclear wind. I pulled on the reigns, knowin' I was just bein' stupid. Weren't no way I could even the fastest horse on the Reynolds Ranch could outrun the human spawned hell that was rushin' towards me. My mare screamed in pain with a voice that sounded more like my momma's than a horse as the fire lit her backside. I felt the skin on my back seared off layer by layer until the hot wind turned my lungs to ash. Beneath me, my horse was still running, all that was left was bones that were churnin' up the miles until there weren't no more of us, and we were torn apart by the wind left.

BREAK

I woke up gaspin' for breath in the confines of Hayden's shuttle. My body was covered in sweat and I stank like did when they'd finally come get us from Hera. With my fingers still shakin' I dug up my flask and took a long drink until the heat of the whiskey hit my empty belly.

"Malcolm Reynolds," I could almost hear my mom's voice. "Don't you be drinkin' without havin' somethin' in that stomach of yours." I pulled a protein bar out of the pack that Milly had made me take, tearin' off a chunk of the 'beef' flavored sawdust and washed it down with more alcohol. I shook the flask, and realized I ain't brought nearly enough booze with me for this trip. It would be least three days 'fore Hayden came back for me, and I was not lookin' forward to spendin' 'em sober.

Don't rightly know how long I slept once the whiskey took effect. Takes me a long time to get drunk enough to just pass out, and I wasn't really payin' attention to the time. My head was poundin', brain pan felt all off kilter, and I wobbled my way to the bridge of the shuttle holdin' onto the bulkhead more than a couple times to let the pukes pass. I hated throwin' up. Done enough of it when I'd been on the surface, and some stupid bit of my head started screaming that I had radiation poisoning.

I settled into the plastic of the pilot's seat, and did my best not to look outside again at the charred landscape. It was daylight now, and it was worse in the light of the sun than it had been last night. At least in the darkness, I could pretend that there was some little bit of green somewhere hidin' and thriving on what was left of Shadow. They'd named her that because the terraformin' had done such a good job on the planet. Callin' her Shadow because she was one of the Earth-that-Was. Now, with all the life stripped from her, maybe the name was more accurate than it ever had been 'fore. But I ain't no scholar, so don't really know for sure. None of us even know if anyone still lives on the old Earth. Probably some folks in the parliament do, but they don't exactly tell the truth to their minions and slaves.

I switched on the link to the Cortex, and punched in the codes to get me to the only friend I had left in the 'Verse. "Yes, ma'am," I said to the face that appeared over the wave. Realizing that I had to look a fright, I pulled on a shirt and tried to get my hair under control 'fore she thought too ill of me. "I'm sorry. Didn't expect to get through so fast. I'm lookin' for Zoe. Is she there? I'm Malcolm Reynolds."

"Know who you are. I'll send for her." The woman who looked so much like Zoe that I knew she had to be her momma left the wave up and running as she sent for her daughter. Think she did that on purpose so I could hear her swearin' about me lookin' for her kid, and how she wished all the reminders about the damned war would just fade away.

"Sir," Zoe said as she slid into the seat. There was a tightness about her lips, and I could tell she'd had an earful from her momma 'bout me on her way to the bridge. "Didn't expect to hear from you so soon."

"You look good," I said with a crooked smile. "I'm on Shadow. Just needed to see a friendly face is all."

Zoe's eyes widened when I said I was on Shadow. "Sir," she let out a slow breath. "That's not exactly a safe place to be right now."

"Don't I know it," I shrugged tryin' to convince her that I was ok in the head, although weren't too sure if I was really. "I just had to see it for myself is all. There's nothin' here Zoe. It's black as pitch. All that's left is the atmo. I was hopin' to see some small bit of home still here, but it's all gone. They ruined it all. Ain't nothin' here at all." I just shut up 'fore I told her that the planet was as dark and empty as my soul. Shadow wasn't just the shadow of the Earth-that-Was no more. It had become the shadow of who I was now too. Weren't nothin' left of me neither.

"You're not goin' to be stayin' there long are you?" I could see she was gettin' it into her head to come rescue her crazy sergeant again which I was gorram sure would piss her folks off more than just about anythin' she could do.

"No, my ride's just up top is all. I'm down here on a shuttle. Won't be here more'n a few extra hours." I lied. I knew she knew it. Zoe knew me better'n anyone who was still breathin', and I couldn't ever pull the wool over her eyes. "I'll be all right Zoe girl. You take care of yourself. I'll be seein' you again." I clicked off the wave before she could argue with me. Wasn't much in the mood to be told I was bein' a damned fool. Knew that well enough on my own.

I checked the clocks. It'd be two more days at least before Hayden came back for me. I'd slept most of the day away in my drunken stupor, but now it was time to get to business. I dug into the pack I'd brought with me until I found the small rocket that I'd bought to send my family and friend's into the Black. I'd given up on god, but that didn't mean that they had. Weren't my place to tell my mom that god had failed us all, let down my planet, let down my folks and left us all for dead.

Dressed in the radiation suit, I stepped back down onto the barren husk of my home world with the rocket tucked up under my arm. Even without the helmet coverin' my head, I knew that there weren't no sound but the dry wind that carried the dark ash that coated everything. The shuttle was covered in it, would have to hope that goin' back up through atmo would clean it off, or I'd have to be scrubbin' it for Hayden. I walked slower than I had on my first time on the ground, takin' time to look here and there in the daylight to see if anything salvageable was there. I balanced the rocket at the middle of what should have been my land. I could see the circled edges of blast site after site as they criss-crossed on the surface like rings on the still water of a lake.

"I'm sorry I failed you," I whispered as I lit the fuse. The radiation meter was vibrating by the time I was finished watchin' the rocket's trail in the grey ash filled sky.

Time is a strange thing depending on your situation. When we were losing our marbles on Hera, breathin' in the stink of our own demise, time seemed to stand still. At the prison camp, I could keep track of the day by which guard was goin' to spit in my food, and which one was goin' to try to bust my ribs one more time. Now and then if I move to fast, I can still feel them twinge and such. Hope they heal eventually now that I ain't bein' beaten on a daily basis.

But time on Shadow didn't seem to move at all. There were no trees left to cast shadows on surface, and the mountains were too far away to cast at all. If I was outside, I supposed I'd be able to see the shadow of the shuttle move slowly 'round it as the day bled slowly into night. I'd been outside too long sendin' off the rocket. The radiation meter had been vibratin' and pingin' at me to get me inside to safety. I really don't know why I bothered. Couldn't really see no reason why I shouldn't just lay down there in the black dust and let my rot there along with what was left of my mind. I know I've lost it. Ain't nothin' left of the man I was when I joined the Browncoats. I'd believed in so much more then, and now I couldn't even believe in myself. I was such a gorram fuck up.

I was wallowin' in pity when the cortex beeped tellin' me I had a wave. I thought about just ignorin it. It'd be so easy just to walk back out of the shuttle in my regular clothes and walk until there was nothin' left of my boots of feet. I could picture it in my head, the soles wearin' away, then the bottoms of my feet, and the bones grating on the surface while I looked for nothing.

As I slowly headed back to the bridge, I picked up my flask and drained the last dregs of it tossin' it back on my bunk. "Yeah," I snapped on the wave.

"Malcolm," it was Milly. Her lips were pursed tight against her teeth, and I could see the worry in her eyes. "Wanted you to know, we're done with our business and on our way back to you. Should be there tomorrow."

Had it already been three days? "I'll be waitin' for you." I ran my fingers through my hair, hoping that I didn't look like too much of a fright to her. She was a good woman, with a gentle soul. Weren't no reason for me to be worryin' her too much. "Just ping me when you reach orbit."


	2. Chapter 2

Knew Hayden came back for me early, half of the cargo he was supposed to be selling was still in the cargo bay when I went down to check. They'd cut their trip by more'n a day to come fetch me, and truth to tell was probably a good thing since I was about ruttin' crazy by the time I docked with the boat. The autodoc in the small infirmary scanned me, and I winced as three long needles stabbed into my arm, leg and rump delivering radiation meds. I was sick as a dog, kept throwing up anything they tried to get me to eat, and I was waiting for my hair to start falling out. As I stared at the dark circles under my eyes and the outline of my ribs through my clothes, a wave of nausea hit along with a bit of vertigo making me hate the Alliance just that much more.

"You look a fright Malcolm," Milly said with her Dyton Colony accent drawing my attention away from my own reflection. She was dressed in coveralls with a smear of engine grease runnin' down one of her ruddy cheeks. She was a round woman, had to wonder how she got beneath the engine sometimes, but she was one hell of a mechanic.

"Not sure what's worse Ma'am," I said with a shrug as I leaned against the bulkhead while I tried to pretend I felt better than I looked. "The radiation sickness or the meds can't seem to keep nothin' down for long."

"Caught a bad dose once me self," she said reaching out to drag me towards the galley. "Only thing I could keep down was good tea and biscuits. I made some just last night, the biscuits that is, while you were asleep. Thought we could have a spot of tea and some."

"I should get back to work Ma'am."

"Don't be an ass, Reynolds," I heard Hayden bellow towards us from halfway down the gangplank towards the bridge. "When my darlin' wife offers to share her good tea and biscuits with you, you go. Don't need you pukin' all over the place anyway. Have plenty for you to do when we get to Persephone."

"Yes sir," I mumbled letting Milly drag me along like an only slightly reluctant puppy. "He yelled at me." I'd never heard Hayden Phillips ever raise his voice before.

"That's because 'e likes you Malcolm." She set a plate with a pair of fluffy layered biscuits in front of me, they were nothing like the spoon dropped kind my mother used to make. These were like fine pastry by comparison. Next to the plate she set down a tub of what might have been real butter and a pot of fresh hot tea that smelled of oranges and spice. "We both like you dear. Need to take better care o' yourself though."

"I know," I watched as she poured creamer into her tea while I held my hand over mine to keep it black. "Just need to find a reason is all. I'm kind of lost Milly. I got nothin' left."

"Course you do Malcolm," she picked up one of my biscuits and spread butter between the layers and shoved it into my hand. Was a bit surprised she didn't shove it into my mouth. "Someday you'll find peace and your reason will come clear. You won't be lost forever luv. You're too strong a person to fall into the dark for long."

"I hope so." I took a bite of the biscuit. It was flaky, light and tasted of home.

"You're welcome to stay with us, long as you like you know?"

"I know," I swallowed the biscuit, washing it down with the tea that was strong, but tasted damned good. Quite an improvement over the protein bars and whiskey I'd been living on down on Shadow. "Just not sure this is the place. I think I need my own home. I was supposed to have a ranch and a family when the war was over."

"All you got to do luv is pull that pretty head out o' your ass and keep those blue eyes open 'til you find your place Malcolm." She chuckled at the surprised look on my face. "So two firsts for you today, got to hear Hayden bellow and me swear. See things are lookin' up for you."

The biscuits seemed to settle my stomach a bit, and the tea had enough caffeine to get my brain working again. Even my ass felt a might better now that I'd pulled my head out of it. Milly had insisted that I take the rest of the day off, but I just couldn't sit in my bunk. I tried reading, but _The Corsair _just wasn't holding my interest. What did that Byron guy know 'bout pirates anyway? I shoved the book back in my footlocker, and went over to the box of vids that my cabin mate had.

Don't know what I was thinking really, there wasn't anything but porn in there. If I wasn't interested in classic Old Earth literature, I sure as hell weren't interested in porn. There must have been over a dozen vids in that box. Why would you need more than a couple? Wasn't as if there were different plotlines. Man sees girl with big breasts. Man does girl with big breasts. Man does girl with big breasts with his friends. Man does girl with big breasts with his friends and her friends…

I was shoving the box back beneath Jamie's bunk when the whole ship took a jolt that knocked me off my feet. I landed back against my own bunk with a stripe of pain running across my lower back that was going to be a crowing touch to all the rest that was wrong with me. I grabbed my gun, and climbed up the ladder to the deck as fast as I could as the ship took another hit.

Thick oily steam was spraying into the passage that ran between the crew quarters from a cracked pipe making the whole section of the ship hot and cutting the visibility to nil. I tried the coms, but got nothing but static. The lights flickered after we took another hit, and I ran towards the bridge fast as I could.

"What the gorram hell's goin' on!" I shouted when I ran into Jamie who was trying to repair a broken wire bundle that ran along the wall. The whites of his eyes were huge round his brown eyes. I could almost taste the fear coming off of him in waves. "Who's shootin' at us?"

"Reavers Mal!" Jamie cussed at he took a little shock from one of the wires. "There's a pair of Reaver ships out there, and they aim to eat us."

"But we ain't near Reaver space," I checked to make sure that I had enough ammo to make sure anyone tried to eat me didn't have no face left to do it.

"Hayden took a short cut, since he needs to get us to Persephone. We're late with our cargo, and he had to make up the time." Jamie didn't add that we were late because of me, but I filled in that part all on my own just fine.

I rushed towards the bridge. Should've probably headed for the docking port to make sure they hadn't latched on to us, but I had to see what was going on with my own two eyes. I was kind of habitual about that sort of thing, always had to see it for myself. I almost jumped up the steps to the bridge. Hayden was flying like a mad man; the ship was spiraling and darting about like a hummingbird to get away from the Reavers.

"Where's Walter?" I asked as I slipped into the co-pilot seat where Walter should have been.

"Do you see him Malcolm?" Hayden let out a string of Chinese curses that might even have made Jamie blush. "The bastard quit on Greenleaf when I said I was headin' back to pick you up 'fore we went on to Persephone."

"So I'm the closest thing you got to a co-pilot?" I strapped in as the ship took another blast. As the belt clicked into place I looked down at the controls, saw that what shields we still had weren't going to last too much longer. "Which ain't sayin' much Hayden. I can barely fly a shuttle."

"Then I guess it's time for you to learn Malcolm. Get on the cortex, send out a distress call. They're jamin' us, and I can't break through that and fly at the same time. See if there's an Alliance ship close enough to save our fine asses from the fire."


	3. Chapter 3

Hayden's ship rocked again, and the terrifying shriek of metal rubbing on metal as the Reaver ship slammed into us. This time the jolt knocked the two of us right out of our seats. I winced as my side hit the deck, feeling my almost knitted ribs pop again. Alarms and warning beacons started howling and echoing through the ship. "Mayday, mayday," I shouted into the radio. "This is the cargo ship Roxanne. We are under attack by Reavers. Mayday! Mayday!" I set the message to auto repeat along with a beacon so they could find us, not that I had much faith in the Alliance arriving in time. They didn't much believe in Reavers. Truth to tell until I'd seen the red painted radiation leaking ships flanking us, I didn't much believe in 'em either.

"Malcolm! You any good with that gun?"

"Good enough, sir." I said as I felt my hand touch the service revolver that had been at my side since the damned war.

"Good. If they get in, you take that gun and shoot everyone in the crew that you can. They don't take any of us alive. You understand me?"

"Not exactly." I could see the whites shining bright round his dark eyes, and knew that he was scared. Scared as much as any man I'd ever seen. "They really do all they say they do?"

"That and more, Malcolm." Hayden crawled back to his feet hanging on to the consul as the ship was knocked about again like a tennis ball hit by a huge racket. "Get down to the engine room. Make sure that Milly is all right. Ain't no reason for us both to be trying to pilot her now. We're trapped. You don't let them have my girl, Malcolm."

I didn't question him. I knew he had to be torn between keeping his place on the bridge of his ship against the wolves huffin' and puffin' at our doors, while he didn't know what was happening to his wife. The Reavers rammed us again, and there was an explosion somewhere on Roxanne. "Nee ta ma duh tyen-shia suo-yo duh run doh gai si." A blast of oily steam nearly cooked the skin off my face as a pipe ruptured. I barely ducked out of the way in time, with the steam only burning the hand I'd been using to keep myself steady.

"What's goin' on Mal?" my bunkmate asked. He was bruised and there was a big cut bleeding down the side of his face, but somehow the stupid hat he always wore was still on his head. If we lived, I was certain he'd be telling a story to the next girl he tried to bed that he'd gotten it from a Reaver's sword that he'd deflected with a pair of chopsticks. "Did we hit something."

"It's Reavers, an' they hit us. You get a gun. Protect the boat." I didn't stay to explain anymore to him. I had to get to the engine room.

The engine room was a mess. Steam and smoke were billowing out of it before I even found the hatch. "Milly?" I pulled my shirt up over my nose and mouth to keep the fumes from sucking the oxygen out of my lungs, and waded in to look for my friend. I found her against the far wall, she had a wrench in one hand and the other hand had been burned away to nearly bare bone. I didn't want to move her, but the air was toxic. If she was going to have a chance, had to get her out of the engine room and close the gorram door behind me.

"Mal?" She let out a raggedy sob as I grabbed her under the arms and started to pull her out. "We're dead in the sky. She's broken."

"Ai ya, wo mun wan luh." I said as I finally got her through the small door of the engine room as the ship was knocked off kilter again. "It's Reavers."

"Should 'ave left me to die with the engines, my pretty Malcolm," Milly rasped as she spoke, I could hear the fluid building up in her lungs, and that weren't never a good thing. "We're good as dead. You be a good boy and shoot me in the 'ead before they get to me now."

"I ain't goin' to have to shoot you in the head," I said as I tore off a chunk of my shirt to press on one of the bleeding wounds on her side. It soaked up the blood fast, much too fast, I could almost feel her pulse in it as I tried to staunch the flow. I knew from my time in the army that she was a goner, but I just couldn't leave her to die alone. Not after all she done for me. Her being hurt was my fault to begin with. "I wish y'all hadn't come back for me early, Milly."

"This isn't your fault Malcolm. Don't you blame yerself. You got enough guilt on your soul. Is Hayden all right?" Funny how the only time she ever managed to use an H was when she said his name.

"Yes ma'am." The compress seemed to be holding, but her face was so pale where it wasn't covered in grease, smoke and blood that I knew for gorram sure that she'd lost too much blood. "He's up top tryin' to fly us to safety."

"Liar," she chuckled then let out a grunt of pain while I watched her body spasm. "He isn't flying us anywhere. We're dead in space. You have enough bullets in there for both of us Malcolm?"

"Yes ma'am. I promised Hayden I wouldn't let them take none of us." As the words left my lips there was an explosion somewhere on the ship, and I could hear screams, gunfire and the sounds of boots on the deck. "One of them ugly fuckers shows up at that door, and I'll blow what's left of his face clean off."

"Don't waste your bullets killing them Malcolm. You gotta save one for you an' me."

I'd heard of Reavers. Even on Shadow they told us boogie man stories about them coming from the sky to rape, murder and eat settlers on the out lying worlds. Since I'd never seen them, I always figured they were some kind of urban legend created by the Alliance to keep us on the straight and narrow. Who'd go out exploring around the outer worlds if there were monsters hiding, and that sort of thing… I weren't too happy to find out they were real, and the stories were true.

When the first pair of them stuck there ugly ass heads into the door I had a hard time believing that it wasn't a walking dead man. It, and I say it, 'cause I couldn't tell what it was, had peeled off most of it's face, leaving a permanently leering skeleton's smile. It raised up an axe made of scrap metal and came charging towards us. I shot it quick, sending a spray of shattered teeth out front and brain out back. It crumpled to the deck still twitching like it didn't know it was dead.

The next came on just as fast, a bit shorter than the last, its face pocked and pierced. Don't know what could make someone do that to themselves, and it weren't like I could ask him neither. They weren't carrying guns, guess that's so they can eat us alive, dead meats not as tasty or something. He died as quickly as the first as his eyeball was blown out of his skull. I shot a couple more, never letting them through the narrow door, but I was almost out of ammo.

Milly was shivering next to me as shock set in. I could hear more of them coming, and brought up my gun up to her temple. "I'm sorry Milly. I don't have enough bullets to kill 'am all." I was about to pull on the trigger when the boat rocked again.

"Surrender and lay down your arms!" I heard the mechanical voice of an Alliance cruiser over riding all of the beacons and communications on Roxanne. "Surrender and lay down your arms! This is Alliance Cruiser Mitchell. You will be shot out of the sky. "Surrender and lay down your arms!"

"Well I don't believe it," I said leaning back, tucking my gun into the holster on my thigh where I could feel the warmth even through the heavy leather and my dungarees. "We're goin' to make it Milly. The gorram ruttin' Alliance actually showed up in time."

She didn't answer me this time. There was no laughter. No reply to me swearing at our saviors. Her eyes were staring towards the bridge, where I supposed she was sending her love to Hayden. I hoped that he heard her.


End file.
